Friday, December 25, 2009

The Christmas Mental Hangover


It's Christmas Night and I'm a bit sad. I know this sounds very strange, but when it comes to big holidays and special events, I experience this overwhelming feeling of disappointment. It creeps up on me every Christmas night - like after we have cake and coffee. After the gifts are all opened.  Why? The truth, I hate that it has to end.

No more Christmas music on Lite FM. No more 24-hours of A Christmas Story on TBS. No more Christmas tree. No more houses and trees lighting up the neighborhood. I dread that feeling of packing up the tree, ornaments and wrapping paper until next year. No more Christmas cards arriving daily in the mail. No more holiday flavored lattes at Starbucks. It seems like such a long wait until the next year when we get to do it all over again. I honestly just hate how that upbeat excitement dies. I hate how the days return to an uneventful state of normalcy.

We spend months preparing for Christmas and it's over in like 48 hours. I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve, so it's not like I'm all excited to get drunk and wild with friends one week from now. Every year, for as long as I can remember, by about 8 pm on Christmas night it hits me that it's over. It's sort of the same feeling I get on Sunday nights before a work week commences.

I went through this after my wedding too. Most people are relieved the minute that their wedding is over. Labor, sweat, tears, stress - everything involved in planning a wedding makes the bride nearly sick - me, I embraced every minute of it. When my wedding ended, I knew I'd feel sad - the same sadness that creeps up on me when we fly home from a vacation. I purposely planned a November wedding so that I would have Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to.

What's wrong with me? Why does this post-holiday/post-event depression make it sound like I hate my everyday life so much? I don't. I'm OK. I mean other than the fact that I wish I had a decent full-time job and a house, things are good. I love my husband, our kitty, my family and friends. I love our new car and our things. I love that my husband cooks and that we're sorta homebodies.

Wondering if others experience this post-holiday sadness.



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